Vast Formless Things III

Yesterday, we went from Illinois to Michigan to visit Addie's graveyard. When we arrived, we saw a woman kneeling at one of the graves. She heard our footsteps and rose to her feet, turning to see us. 

"Ah, Mr. Zane. I am Melinoe," she told Eric. "I was the one who informed on you for the Chthonian cause, all those months ago."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Eric asked. (I suppose he can be a little prickly when he first gets to know a person.)

"Have you so quickly forgotten? When we visited you recently, we knew of Zagreus, and how he renounced his true name in favor of some trash given him by his supposed parents. This mangy dog wondered how we knew, did he not?" Melinoe asked rhetorically, pointing at me. "He thought you might have had an informer in your midst, but it was nothing so dramatic. He simply needs to stop speaking of everything that happens to him or otherwise enters his thick, stupid skull."

By which she meant she just read my blog. I still don't know if that revelation was anticlimactic or relieving.

Clara backed away. "Please, stay, dearie," Melinoe growled.

Clara stopped in her tracks, paralyzed by fear, and Melinoe went on. "I suppose you think you have the advantage of numbers. But you don't, not quite." She outstretched her arms, and portals opened like the ones Triptolemus had summoned for the parking-lot fight. "Thanatos' chosen are never alone."

From one portal stepped Triptolemus, Hecate, and Acheron, from another two Puppets who looked a lot like Clara and two people wearing masks and coats. One of them was wearing Kaden's old kitsune mask and the other was wearing the Alan Roach devil mask. They were Mountebanks.

"I thought Puppets were your enemies," Eric said to Melinoe.

"They were, but you would understand the benefits of rallying those in conflict against a common enemy, would you not?" Melinoe asked him.

Then she took out a knife and went straight for him. He grabbed her arm as she stabbed and put her in a headlock, then used his leverage to disarm her. She elbowed him in the chest, causing him to double over where she hit him. She went for her knife. I panicked and hit her with my knife's handle. Triptolemus trained a pistol on me, but Eric tackled him to the ground.

Meanwhile, a Mountebank in the devil mask of Alan Roach aimed a gun at Kaden, leading Giles to send several birds after him. The kitsune Mountebank threw a Molotov at the birds, so Kaden teleported behind him and kicked his legs out from under him. Ash and Alice tangled with Acheron and Hecate, respectively, though the specifics slip away from me thanks to how much was going on at the time. I think Caledon helped them with that, courtesy of his knife.

The female Puppet walked towards Clara and said to her, "My, my, Clara, how you've developed since last I saw you. Be a dear and put that newfound strength of yours to use, hm? Help Mother. These people aren't your friends."

Clara took out her knife, but the male Puppet pulled her away before she could do anything to the strings that hovered in the air above her mother.

"Oh, that's your father," Clara's mother said as she struggled. "He used to be a willing servant, good as could be, but then he misbehaved, and we had to get him under control." She giggled. "You thought he was away. No, no, he just got what he needed. I suppose the same thing happened to me. Isn't that right, dear?"

Clara's father nodded silently.

"He's not a talkative one, your father," Clara's mother said, raising her eyebrows knowingly.

Caledon had been assisting Ash and Alice in fighting the Timberwolves, but when he realized what was going on with the Puppets, he decided the agents were a match for them, and went over to the two Puppets. Then he cut their strings. The Puppets—Clara's parents—collapsed to the ground.

While Caledon rushed to get Clara out of the graveyard, Eric and I were still struggling against Triptolemus and Melinoe. As I mentioned, Eric had tackled Triptolemus and I had hit Melinoe with my knife's handle. By the point where Caledon and Clara had dealt with their own problems, Triptolemus had rolled over and pinned Eric down. So I grabbed him, pulled him off Eric, and shoved him into Melinoe.

"Thanks."

I nodded.

Then Acheron, the largest of everyone there, saw how his bosses were doing. That made him a little upset, by which I mean he plowed directly into me, knocking me to the ground, and punched me repeatedly. I was able to dodge some of his blows, but not all of them. He was tough. It was painful.

Alice told Ash to give her an opening, so he dealt with Hecate while Alice took out her gun. She kept it lowered.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked Acheron.

Acheron just growled and rushed her.

She clicked off the safety and fired into Acheron's leg. He howled in pain and collapsed to the ground.

I winced.

Hecate opened a portal and went through with Acheron by her side. I assume it led to a Timberwolf base.

Melinoe slashed at Alice with her knife, having seen how willing she was to use the gun at her side. Eric and I had been dealing with Triptolemus; Ash was trying to assist Alice in dealing with Melinoe, but was unable to keep her from getting cut. It was a long, nasty cut that went across her face, and it was bleeding out. Ash apologized and got Alice out of there. She tried to convince him to stay and let her deal with it herself, but he insisted.

(Ah, romance. Truly, the only thing keeping people from allowing one another to bleed to death.)

"Roll call. Who's left?" Eric asked.

"Me, you, Kaden, Giles, two Timberwolves, two Mountebanks," I replied.

"Those odds aren't bad.

 "Eggs haven't hatched yet," Kaden said. "My magic isn't working quite right at the moment. I haven't the faintest why, but if I had to guess, Jack thought it would be funny. The bastard."

Then he took out his coin and stared at it for a moment. He handed it to the kitsune Mountebank. "I'd like you to take a look at this."

"Jack's coin?" the kitsune asked in shock. "It's shifting... you used your powers to fake it, didn't you? He wouldn't have given you his coin. You're a rogue Mountebank. You betrayed us all."

"You idiot. You absolute idiot. I'd have used my powers to blast you into a pile of dust by now if I still had my powers. Jack's not listening to me anymore."

"Maybe he wants you to put in some work of your own. That would certainly be a change of pace, wouldn't it?"Kaden shrugged. "It's no concern of mine that you hate me. That's your problem, Adam Weiss."

"Adam Weiss?"

"You don't do a very good job of disguising your voice when you're in the midst of battle." He shook his head. "I'm surprised. I never would have expected that growl of yours to be your real voice! Ah, well." He turned to Eric, Ash, Alice, and myself as we fought Triptolemus and Melinoe. "I imagine you're wondering about the identity of Mr. Weiss here. Well, for lack of a better term, he's the boss of our little club, Jack not included." Kaden held out his hand to Weiss. "Well, I'd like that coin back now."

"No. It's not yours to own. I'm Jack's favored one."

"Who gives a shit about Jack anyways?" Kaden asked. "And that’s a serious question, by the way. Why do you even care? He clearly doesn't care about us."

"I... no. Of course he does. We're his chosen ones. You turned your back on his favor, that's why your powers aren't working, but the rest of us are his faithful servants. Why wouldn't he care about us?" 

"Because he doesn't care about anybody. He's Jack. He's not a nice man. Open your eyes, Adam. He's a monster. There's nothing in him but dust and hate. Do you want to be like him?"

"You're wrong. We're the only ones who matter. We mock each other, but we're steadfast companions to the end. We do Jack's work."

"You don't do shit." Kaden kicked Adam Weiss in the chest, sending him reeling backwards. "Help me stop these clowns. Don't look at me like that, I'm serious. For once in my life, I care about something. You can do what you want to me. Do your worst. Keep the stupid coin. I don't give a shit about any of that. Just help me protect Giles. Help me protect my friends. Jack wants me to live so he can keep tormenting me, but I can't live without these stupid jerks—and Clara. You care so much about Jack? Help me out."

As all of this was happening, a battle raged. I had no clue at the time how they managed to avoid getting hurt in the midst of the fight, but in retrospect, I have to wonder if Jack was keeping us away from the two of them somehow. Weiss muttered something to himself, then turned to Alan Roach, who was fighting Giles.

"Alan. Stop fighting the Nest. Assist Kaden."

Alan didn't seem to be paying attention. He was too busy trying to make sure Giles didn't turn him into a human sauté.

Weiss shrugged apologetically at Kaden, then knelt down to pick something up. It was a rock, which he proceeded to throw at Alan's head. "Pay attention, you thick-skulled cretin," Weiss said irritably. 

Alan and Giles stopped fighting for a moment as they realized what was going on.

Alan shrugged and said to Weiss, "Alright, boss. Whatever you say." After that, the Mountebanks helped out a fair bit. It made things a cakewalk for a while.

Then the Black Dog arrived. It came silently. None of us seemed to really know when it showed up. And once it did, we stopped fighting. We were all allied against the beast.

Melinoe's first instinct was to attack it with her knife. Bad move, obviously. She landed the hit, but the Dog just tore off part of her leg and began to regenerate. Then it turned to me and growled. I stood paralyzed in fear. It started to charge, so Eric grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me away. He took the hit. He survived, thank God. But he was hurt badly. I had to do something, but what? I certainly had no clue.

"Cut the Dog, mate," Giles said. "I've got an idea."

"Are you crazy?" I asked. "Did you see what it did to her?" I gestured at the portal through which Melinoe and Triptolemus had just exited.

"I said, I've got an idea. You cut it, I sear it. Slash and burn. Like the Hydra."

The Dog growled. I already had my knife out. I cut the Dog, and it howled in pain. I would've felt bad if I didn't know better. Then Giles sent the birds after it, and they electrified its wounded flesh. It bit me, which hurt as badly as you might expect, but it didn't do anything for the Dog. It was unable to regenerate. It laid down on the ground, weak and battered. "How the hell did you figure that one out?" Eric asked.

"Lucky guess, I suppose," Giles said with a smile. "Now, let's not push our luck, alright? We don't know it'll stay down. Let's move."

"...Right," I said.

I realized with a start that the Dog was on Addie's grave. I doubted it was a coincidence. I kicked the thing aside and knelt down. Then I took out a rose from my coat pocket. It wasn't perfectly intact, but I got the feeling she wouldn't mind. With that, I set it on her grave and walked away with my friends by my side.

- Henry Hallack

King Pest III

It just occurred to me that this title could be read "King Pest the Third."

Anyways, we left the hotel we'd been staying in. It was going nicely, but then Clara started seeing something we didn't want around. Shadows in the corners that didn't have casters and moved on their own. Nightlanders, they're called. The fear of the unknown.

They get dangerous when they're angry.

Incidentally, I don't really get why standard Runner practice is to only have one or two companions at a time. I think the idea might be to avoid attracting attention, but our group already looks pretty conspicuous, and a lot of Runners do, too.

None of this is really relevant to what's really important, though, as exciting as I'm sure you find it. Actually, most of what I wanted to say here is that we're planning on visiting Addie's grave. I think I want to pay my respects to her, one last time. I never really got to say goodbye, after all.

Especially since Eric and I are dating now. I just don't think it would be exactly pleasant to be in a relationship with someone who's constantly dwelling on his dead girlfriend. I mean, it's not like I don't care about Addie anymore, but I don't think she'd want me to be the way I've been for all this time. And I don't either.

- Poe

For Evermore II

I dreamed about the Constant Wanderer last night. I assume it's because I've been thinking about them, what with my latest post and all.

In the dream, I was floating through the college where I met Addie and I knew, all of a sudden, that I was near the Constant Wanderer. I asked the Constant Wanderer what they were doing there, even though I knew what they would say. They said they were just passing through. Then they asked what I thought of the idea of immortality. I told them I wasn't sure. I didn't quite know why, because I knew what I really thought, at least in the dream. I never wanted to die.

The Wanderer seemed to know what I was thinking, because they told me something that we humans have known for a long time. They told me that immortality is hell.

It's one of the oldest ones in the book, really. (The Epic of Gilgamesh, to be more specific.) The Wanderer told me that no matter how hard it would be on my friends for me to die, the guilt that comes with watching others do the same would always be worse.

Of course, I have no intention of living forever in my waking life, but it seemed slightly presumptuous of them not to consider the possibility of that being the case even when you're mortal. I told them that. They seemed earnestly surprised, and apologized for the transgression.

I noticed after a little while that I had, at some point, ended up in the graveyard where Addie was buried.

We floated a bit more, maybe, and then I woke up.

When I woke up, I remembered what my current circumstances were. Specifically, my friends and I were staying at a hotel, courtesy of our benefactors at ARC. (Complete with moderately nice pool.)

I also remembered that I didn't care what the Wanderer thought.

- Poe

For Evermore

That motley drama—oh, be sure
It shall not be forgot!
With its Phantom chased for evermore
By a crowd that seize it not,
Through a circle that ever returneth in
To the self-same spot,
And much of Madness, and more of Sin,
And Horror the soul of the plot.

I think I'll take a break from posts involving my personal life real quick to talk about a particular Fear.

The Constant Wanderer is a humanoid Fear that wears an auburn ponytail and an eyepatch, and that used to be human. I've heard conflicting reports of what their human self was like, but a personal favorite story of mine is that they used to be a writer. I guess that's a bit of bias on my part, though, especially since the Wanderer is one of the few Fears that doesn’t seem to be actively malicious. Rather, they unintentionally cause time distortion, particularly loops.

Frankly, I feel bad for the Wanderer. Like I said, they used to be human, and they don’t really seem to be malicious, and became a Fear by suffering... well, a lot.

(Maybe I'll end up as a Fear soon. That seems about right.

Still, being around Eric, Clara, Caledon, Kaden, Giles, Ash, and Alice has been... pretty nice. Sure, I've ended up in some tricky situations as a result of being around people with their own complications, like Caledon's former employers, but it's not like I didn't already have a difficult life.

Not that material assistance from Eric's employers hurts, for that matter.

But, really, things are starting to get better. It's a weird feeling.)

- Poe

Vast Formless Things II

My little group was eating together the other day when Caledon and Clara showed up, along with two suited people.
Cal walked over to our table and explained, "I've gotten ARC to let us go with you, with another agent or two alongside us to protect Clara and ensure I don't do anything too, y'know, risky."
"Wait, you're Zagreus, aren't you?" asked Kaden.
"Caledon, actually. Used to be, though."
"Oh. You aren't an Angel anymore?"
"No. I left them a few months back."
"That makes sense. You certainly looked miserable back then. ...Do you fellows want to sit down?"

The four newcomers sat down at the table next to ours.
"Well, then. Let's recap, shall we?" Kaden asked. "We have a former Mountebank, a former Angel, a reluctant Nest, three ARC agents, a Runner, and a would-be Puppet. Is that all correct?"
"Yeah, pretty much," I said.
"God, that is a weird group. Hello, by the way," he said to the agents.
"Hello," said one of them, who wore a suit and generally looked like he should have been in a 40s crime movie. I assumed he wasn't wearing a fedora because he was in a restaurant, despite its relative lack of classiness. "My name's Ash, and my partner is Alice."
"Wait, Ash and Alice?" Eric asked. "The legendary..." He trailed off as he saw Ash and Alice look at one another in an "I can't believe we're having this conversation again" kind of way. "Never mind. Anyways, I'm Eric, this is H—, this is Kaden, and this is Giles."
"I see. Kaden, you mentioned a former Mountebank and an unwilling Nest?"
"Yes. I used to be a Mountebank. Giles is a Nest, but the birds usually go near him instead of inside. But I assume ARC doesn't need to assign any more security to us, what with the three agents?"
"Unlikely," Ash said. "Unless you're particularly dangerous."
"That's fair... it isn't like I'm a wizard or anything." He smiled.
Ash laughed, though I detected a hint of suspicion in his expression.
"So," said Kaden,  "what are we going to do? Our circumstances aren't the best at the moment. Couldn't we just stay at ARC headquarters?"
"We'd like to be able to house you long-term, but we just don't have the money for that, especially with how spartan the holding cells are currently," Eric said. "I guess what I mean is, if you're interested, you could go there, but it wouldn't be perfect. Which is also why we don't take in Runners. Much as we'd like to, we don't have unlimited funding, so we have to prioritize."
"...Oh," said Kaden. "That makes sense. Hm." He rubbed his coin absentmindedly.

As I looked at Kaden's coin, I noticed the image on its "heads" side shift slightly. Then, yet another important person walked into the restaurant. I assumed he was Jack of All, Kaden's former patron. He matched the new look of Kaden's coin, for one thing, and he wore a red glove on his right hand, for another.

"You know," Jack said to Kaden, "God doesn't play dice. But I do."
"Why are you here?" Kaden asked angrily.
"To explain something. You see, you really did get off easy when all that happened to you was that you got stuck with the Mountebanks. I rolled snake eyes when I decided what to do with you, and I don't fix my games. So I went with it, and I allowed you to escape the Mountebanks without your end of the deal being nullified. I even gave you that good luck charm, Kaden dear," he said, eyeing the coin. "Though that was more out of generosity than anything else."
"You expect me to believe you?" Kaden asked.
"You don't have to," Jack said casually. "It's not like I can make you. But I can certainly make good on my promise in the future. Besides, what difference does it make whether you believe me or not? You can't hurt me."
Kaden sighed. "I guess you're right, but—"
"No buts, Crowley. I'm right. That's it."

Kaden stared at him in anger as Jack walked away. Jack turned around to say, "Oh, and don't expect things to turn out right. I'm not the only power out there... or around here." Then he disappeared back into the night.

I'm pretty glad we were the only ones there, aside from the staff. I have to assume the people who were there just took it as a strange midnight chat between people in a cheap restaurant.

- Poe

King Pest II

Kaden has taken to calling Giles his "old flame." He pretends to be joking, but...

Honestly, they're adorable.

(And no, the title isn't even slightly fitting here, but I'm too lazy to find a relevant Poe quote, so I'm recycling from when I met Eric and found him annoying for some reason. Probably just inability to cope with having another snarky guy around. That, and his working for ARC, whom I still don't really trust or like.

Oops.)

- Poe

The Winged Seraphs II

The Timberwolves found us.

Evidently, they had started trailing us at some point. Either we've got a mole among us, or they've been trailing us for a while now, because they knew about the Caledon situation, and they weren't happy.

For once, I think I'd rather it be the latter option.

Let's back up.

The four of us were eating dinner at a fast food place when a bald, bearded man with the Archangel seal tattooed on his neck showed up at the table next to ours. To be perfectly honest, having the symbol of your group drawn on your skin with ink isn't exactly subtle. On the other hand, given his pointed glances at the four of us as we ate, I don't know if subtlety was his goal.

We finished eating quickly after he arrived. What little food we had left by that point, we trashed. Better to be hungry for a little while than to stick around for a fight with one of the Archangel's dogs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, the Timberwolf wasn't really interested in eating, and followed us outside shortly after we started to leave.

What a shame. I usually like eating the leftover fries, and they went totally to waste.

There were no other people in the parking lot by that point.

"You four. H—, I mean, and your little gang. Of course, my pal isn't with you anymore, but he didn't have to be for long, eh?"
"Who is this guy?" asked Giles.
"I think he's the partner of a guy who betrayed the Timberwolves," I replied.
"That's correct. My name is Triptolemus. I was assigned to Zagreus to keep him from doing to us what he'd already done to ARC, Eric's, eh, employers. By which I mean betray us. And now that's happened, and it's your fault, I'm a little upset with you guys."
"So, what is your plan, exactly?" asked Eric. "Other than just attacking a Runner, an ARC agent, a Nest, and a sorcerer, that is."
"Was that deliberately ranked in terms of least to most powerful, or was that a coincidence?" asked Kaden.
The three of us glared at him. He just raised his hands as if to surrender.
"Actually, no, I had no plans of attacking alone," said Triptolemus, completely ignoring Kaden. "Everybody, meet my friends Hecate, Acheron, and Melinoe. They're… what's the word… angels."
I didn't like where I was pretty sure this was going.

Three more Timberwolves stepped out of portals behind Triptolemus, apparently using some sort of domain-based transport. I took out my knife, Eric took out his gun, Giles called the birds, and Kaden summoned a ritualistic-looking dagger.

Triptolemus held out his hand before his Timberwolves could do anything. "Wait, friends. Perhaps we don't have to resolve this through violence. How about you just tell me where Eric here is keeping my buddy, and I tell my goons not to hurt you?"
Eric grimaced.
"I'll take that as a no?"
Eric, ordinarily so hygienic, spat on the ground.
"Hm. Playing hard to get, eh? That's alright. We can tango if you're looking to tango." He made a throat-slitting gesture and pointed at us.

It was barely a contest. Giles' birds mangled the Timberwolves, or at least Melinoe and Acheron. The difficulty was keeping the birds from killing them without making the birds angry at us. Kaden offered to summon birdseed, but Giles said the Convocation weren't interested in that now that they'd tasted blood. Thus, Kaden did the only sensible thing and summoned some more.

I suddenly don't want to know how Kaden's summoning works.

At any rate, that distracted the Convocation, but it also kept us from doing anything when Triptolemus opened a portal to Bliss and, along with his allies, escaped.

I think Kaden mentioned something about recognizing Triptolemus. That comment made a bit more sense when he explained that Triptolemus had met him when he was a Mountebank, meaning Triptolemus didn't recognize Kaden's face, voice, or name, and he'd also lied to him, meaning he had reason not to mention it earlier.

At any rate, that's another complication for us all to deal with. I'm torn between feeling glad that we escaped unharmed and horrified at what the Convocation did to the Timberwolves, even if I think they might still survive.

C'est la vie, I suppose.

- Poe